Welcome!

It's pretty easy to start, if you've read a little. Our game is a
roleplay intensive game, meaning that 100% of what you do should be in
character, but we all know how hard it is to get used to a new game. When
you enter the game, it's probably best to listen and learn a
little while to get the hang of things. Don't wander outside or go
anywhere that looks dangerous, at least till you've learned the lay of
the land.

You'll find that the town you'll be starting in,
Valrona, acts a lot
like "normal" life in terms of rules to follow. You'll also notice that
food and drink do cost money, unless you want to scrounge and drink
fountain water! So you'll need a job or some way of finding money. The
links on the left will get you started, and in addition, at the end of
the page are some links to help you.

Ingame, you'll notice our gameworld-specific helpfiles generally refer back to
webpage URLs. This is intentional; since most of our documentation is
here, it makes more sense to write full details about things here. We
do want complete helpfiles ingame, however, and we have helpfile software
that logs whenever someone tries to access a nonexistent helpfile. So
feel free to look ingame if that's where you are! But the
glossary and
"people" pages will have just about everything
you need to start learning about things.

Please do take the time to learn about the general gameworld, and you'll
find (especially thanks to its less "medieval" aspects) that you should be
able to fit in fairly quickly. We welcome you!

A Foreword to New Players

Imagine what it'd be like if you were used to a very
technological life and suddenly had to rough it in a world
with no power! Most strangers to Valrona
find themselves
in that situation, but for most folks, it's just normal.
The divide between the "used-to-haves" and the "never-had"
can be very great, with the former group ranging from
disgruntled to thinking it's all very quaint, and the
latter not seeing what the fuss is as they get along fine
without it.

We hope you enjoy our game. You'll be joining a game that is
half science-fiction, half fantasy, and all original. Though plenty
of technology exists, the area of the game you'll be playing in
doesn't get most of technology's benefits. The government is
feudal and monarchical, with lots of combat, intrigue, and political
scheming. If you want to get into a game with a lot of depth, we hope
you'll find something you enjoy here.

It's also important to know that Valrona
itself is pretty sophisticated, with students and scholars from
all over the Empire. There are hip musicians, brilliant
archaeologists, unapproving clergymen, and bright-eyed rich
college students, sometimes all mingling in the same places.
Artists, streetworkers, government officials, soldiers, all
come together as part of plots run by players and staff alike.

Our character application process is
a little different than most games', due to the fact that we
have active plots running that we will want to fit your character
into. It's entirely possible we won't see how your 17-year-old
orphan dockworker could fit into any current plots and ask you
to rework him a little bit. We do this not to
drive you crazy but to better fit you into our plots, and as the
game grows and the number of plots grows, these requests will
dwindle in turn. Please do not be offended if we do ask you to
rework your character concept a little; we do it purely because
we want you involved in as many plots as possible, as quickly
as we can get you into them.

We also pursue a slightly different roleplaying
philosophy than most games do. We ask players to pursue an
inclusive vs. exclusive philosophy that allows them to get into
plots and get other characters involved, especially as the game
gets going. Quiet, sullen tarts who sit all day in bars and sigh
and flop around and silently beg people to draw them out can
certainly play, but they sure won't get as much staff attention as people
who'll get other players involved in turn!

That's really what it's all about: community. We want players who
want to be part of a tight-knit, thriving group who trust each other
to have good intentions and work together to tell a story.

Your PC can be either male or female. With few exceptions,
professions are open to either gender in Valrona (most of the
exceptions involve military service. To join most military orgs,
your PC will need to be strong and quick enough to qualify regardless
of gender). Whichever
gender you pick, you'll likely just be
Sciallan, a basic human
type, and probably lower or middle class. Your PC is almost
certainly literate, too, unless he's from outside the
Eastern Cities. The main language ingame is
Eshtenel, though there
are certainly others.

The Church of Haran figures
quite prominently into life around Valrona.
Your PC can
be as religious as you like. Most people aren't overly
religious but anybody of good birth or having (or desiring!)
good connections will at least tithe and attend church each
week. Someone known for an irreverent attitude won't go far
among the well-to-do. Considerations of employment and perks
will usually go to the person who is best known for a reverent
demeanor. That said, people who aren't religious at all will
fit in just fine around Valrona as long
as they don't care
about advancement.

Class and birth matter quite a bit here. Nobility have carte blanche
to do just about anything they want, while commoners have to dodge to get
out of their way. Having well-connected parents can get someone far. That
said, players will generally begin game as commoners without a lot of
connections. Our game philosophy follows tabletop roleplaying: if you're
dedicated and competent, you can go just about as far as your PC's blood
will allow. We're completely open to someone becoming a crimelord or clan
head of some huge org, or even to rise to nobility! There is not a tabletop
game in existence that caps a PC's skills or ability to rise through the
ranks, and we're not about to do that. As time goes on and you earn more
RPPs through your good roleplay, you can
improve your PC and "purchase" roleplay opportunities for yourself. If you
want to retire your PC and start over as another race or someone with
an actual bloodline, you can, but we'd love to see you keep your character
for years and become part of our ingame mythology!

It's a good idea to peruse the links up top of this page if you're
new, so you can learn how to fit in. This game isn't like a lot of
others, and there is stuff to know so you get maximum enjoyment out
of your character. Welcome to the game!

Technology and You

Technology Levels:
Space travel between planets is doable and fairly sophisticated but not
common. Electricity in the form of solar and steam power are common on most
planets and within the Perimeter around
Priascialla. Handguns in the form of burstfire
pistols, flameblades, and the like are
used, and personal forcefields are doable if rather obvious for the most part,
aside from some really cutting-edge Lirwhinite
stuff. Medicine is on a sophisticated level; cancer is usually curable if
caught early enough, brain damage and paralysis can be worked with, and most
birth defects can be at least helped if not eradicated. Nearsightedness is
clinically treatable, mental illness is manageable, and addiction therapy
is usually successful. Weight loss is also generally easier through a
combination of cognitive/behavioral therapy and pharmaceuticals. In terms
of transport, most people in the Empire travel via personal conveyances
that use wheels or just use magnetic repulsion technology, and there are
bigger ships that transport people and things vast distances. Basically,
the environment is post-modern and very technological.

On Scialla, however, things work
very differently. Electricity--circuits, breakers, transponders, electronics,
power cells and collectors, you name it, none of it works outside a narrow
range around the capital city. There're a lot of speculations about why and
just what burns power cells out almost instantly after leaving the
Perimeter, and why guns don't work and transports don't fly and all of it.
So far nobody's figured it out to everybody's satisfaction, so people on
Scialla have learned to live with it.

The odd breakdown of chemicals that happens right outside the Perimeter
is known very well by most people except those from the very outer fringes
of society. Gunpowder breaks down, most notably, but other compounds that
cause explosions or combustion also break down. The Sciallan environment
attacks and destroys them by means of an enzymatic process that is not well
understood. The few attempts to bring power to Scialla have failed
miserably, so most attempts die in utero.

The important thing to note here is that Sciallans know their planet
isn't friendly to technology, but that doesn't mean they're backwards or
ignorant. That is a mistake sometimes made by outsiders or even by those
living in the capital. Living on Scialla means living without technology,
just like living on Lirwhin means living in a
Dome or living on Flamehold means
living within the Ribbon. Sciallans
have learned how to cope with it, and many pride themselves on being able
to do without and how to be inventive and ingenious within their constraints.
Fights have started in Valrona over exactly this issue!

If you're going to play a person from Scialla, you'll likely be from
outside the Perimeter. In that case, you may not know about a lot of this
stuff. You may not ever have seen a spaceship or a burstfire pistol. You
may not ever have seen a solar collector or know that cancer can be cured.
How you deal with the sudden realization is up to you: bitterness that your
Aunt Mae died of diabetes complications? Joy at the wonder of all the new
stuff to be learned? An aching desire to get to the Perimeter to live among
all of it? Or a solid satisfaction that you can get away from all that sinful
sophistication?

Worse yet, imagine the people who're used to all that technology who now
live in Valrona and haven't got it.

Things You Can Refer To
Medicine in Valrona tends toward the technological. Naturally, the
X-ray machines won't work, but pharmaceuticals are fine, and general
first-aid and palliative therapies are usually spot-on. As long as it
doesn't take power to use, it's usually fine to refer to and know. People
from far from the Eastern Cities probably won't know the more advanced stuff
and may still think that mis-set broken limbs or diseases are just part of
normal everyday life.

Printing presses are common throughout the Empire, but the ones outside
the Perimeter look more like a Gutenberg-style movable-type press than anything
modern. Typefaces go line-by-line, with leading and all that fun primitive stuff.
Way out west, books may even be hand-written one by one. Scriptoriums stay
busy transcribing some of the older ones, but presses back in Priascialla
and offplanet do sometimes reprint and re-issue classics.

Lithographic prints are available, but most people buy paintings or other
forms of handmade art. Sporting venues and the like use the lithographs. Prints
of the four-color variety (posters) are too expensive for most purposes. You still
may see lithographs floating around, especially in bars or gathering spots.

Architecture is about what one would expect of a fairly high-tech society.
Concrete isn't really used; the machines for mixing and distributing it don't
exist per se. Stone is used for most things. In Priascialla, concrete does
exist, but outside of it, there's not much of it. Cobblestones are common for
fancy paving, and more fitted stones for the mass-produced stuff. Lirwhinites
have a spray-on concrete and considerable tech around making buildings; they
also have a form of plastic (cleargel),
a gel that hardens to rocklike consistency
that is derived from the shells of microscopic mollusks. Lirwhinite goods usually
have a 100%-200% markup off Lirwhin, due to their nearly magical properties.

Speaking of materials, most people outside the Perimeter really wouldn't
know much about factories, mass production, or removable parts. Machines
are rare without power. Windmills and watermills are known everywhere,
though ironically people offworld wouldn't know much about them while
those outside powered areas would know quite a bit! Cotton isn't used
much on Scialla due to the difficulties in hand-harvesting and refining it
(remember Eli Whitney and the cotton gin?), and while it makes a softer lawn
than most linens and takes dyes very nicely, it can be prohibitively
expensive--either it'll be produced on-planet, and be expensive due to
manufacturing costs, or it'll be imported from Bilashe and be expensive
due to import costs.

Most people outside the Perimeter would know about selective breeding
programs, birth defects being physical and not spiritual, and the like.
Farming's in pretty good shape, with a Green Revolution every 20-30 years
and discoveries about how to increase yield or deal with pests or crop
illnesses.

Plumbing is complex, effective, and widespread. Even the most
primitive villages have indoor plumbing. Bathtubs aren't always common,
but toilets and sinks are. Hot water heaters are not always common
and usually involve stoves, and most Noble households have them.
Though ingame builders usually gloss the "water closet," these can be
understood to be there. If there is a bathtub, however, it will be
mentioned by name.

Obviously there's no way to take into account every conceivable
technology a player might need to reference, so we are happy to work
with you to make your RP more three-dimensional.
Important: If there's a specific piece of tech you want to refer to,
please use these guidelines: Nothing copyrighted by Star Wars, Star Trek,
Firefly/Serenity, or the like, and please run the idea by staff first.
Until you hear one way or the other, play it general; don't use specific
words or techs till you know.

For specific examples of technology (brand names, specific gadgets,
etc.) by planet, please see the Races page under
the culture you want.